Monsoon Adventure Travel Philosophy
What is a Monsoon?
A monsoon is a term from early Arabs called the "Maupin," or "the season of winds." Ancient traders plying in the Indian Ocean and adjoining Arabian Sea used it to describe a system of alternating winds which blow persistently from the northeast during the northern winter and from the opposite direction, the southwest, during the northern summer. Now as monsoons have become better understood, the definition now indicates climatic systems anywhere in which the moisture increases dramatically in the warm season. The Asian monsoon, which affects the Indian subcontinent and the southeast part of Asia, is probably the most noted of the monsoons.
The monsoon winds were already known since ancient times. The Greek Aristobulos
which took part in the expedition of Alexander the Great to India studied
already at the end of the fourth century B.C. the climatologic aspects of
the monsoon in India.
The Romans learned to use the southwest monsoon
to sail directly across the Indian Ocean from the
Gulf of Aden to South-India.
In Buddhism, the vassa (the yearly rains retreat for Buddhists monks) is closely associated with the monsoon.
Why Monsoon Adventure? Our Motivation:
Since we were young we both dreamt of discovering new places and new cultures. Our interest was drawn by the adventures of the first explorers who were searching for new sea routes to the East and this way discovering new places and customs. Crossing the Antarctic Circle while searching for the “lost continent Terra Australis” in the 18th century was one of the highlights in a period of many discoveries. Never before has a ship sailed so much southwards like James Cook did with his HMS Resolution. Terra Australis, also Terra Australis Incognita, Latin for "the unknown land of the South", was an imaginary continent, appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th century.
The expeditions in Cambodia (rediscovery of Angkor) and Laos of Henri Mouhot aroused our specific interest in Southeast Asia even more.
During our first history lessons we read a lot about the travels of the VOC and their famous captains in their early days of discovering new territories for trading. This all ignited an interest in traveling new ways and new paths for discovering in both of us.
Our dream and goal is to keep on discovering new things, new people like in those famous old days. We also would like to share these new or first time-experiences with other like-minded people.
For us a Monsoon stands for the moisture of the tropics and discoveries in the style of and James Cook and Henri Mouhot. It gives us an insight in the old “circumstances and hardships” they had to endure in those old days. Luckily for us we don’t need to go through these “hardships” to discover and to do new things anymore... That’s our motivation and goal for starting with the Monsoon Adventure Travel Company. We have developed our own ideas and “philosophy” the way we would like to realize and share our dreams with our guests.
HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure with fishing craft in Matavai Bay, Tahiti,
in August 1773. Painted by William Hodges in 1776.
Our Travel Philosophy
Based upon our own personal experiences that there is a lack of quality adventures in the tourism market, we developed our unique "Monsoon Adventure Travel Philosophy", especially for our future explorer-guests who like to adventure in new places like in the "good old days" when there was a new adventure around every "corner ..." Like the 11 year sailing adventures of James Cook around the Pacific Ocean. In those days adventurers were tough men with a strong character. Nowadays there is a possibility for everybody to be an adventurer all you need is a normal health record, flexibility and a strong sense of humour.
Mass tourism or mainstream tourism is not what you are looking for if you want to travel with Monsoon Adventure. It is for our future explorers very important to realize this because it is the core of our philosophy. It affects the attitude and health condition we expect from our future explorers. We love to visit and discover places that still haven’t lost their charm and character of uniqueness. This way of thinking and travelling makes it necessary that our future explorers have a lot of flexibility in their luggage.
The "Monsoon Adventure Travel Philosophy" stands for a way of exploring the unique ways of local life in different places. We will try to give our guests or explorers a real authentic taste of the "colour local” and new cultures and their unique customs.
We consider respect for the environment and the local people and their way of life very important. This is also called "cultural sensitivity".
Our Personal approach means first of all respect towards
the local population and customs where ever we are. We are guests in their "house".
We are trying to reduce the negative impacts of tourism on these small and
fragile communities. We also believe that our interaction is and should be
mutually beneficial. Therefore we try to engage these local communities as
much as possible. We hire local guides, never squeeze our local partners/suppliers
as we believe their service is worth a mutually fair price and deal with
small business owners as often as possible. This means in a practical way
that we always will have a preference over locally owned restaurants, businesses,
and accommodations if the choice offers the best possible for our clients.
Because of our detailed knowledge of the region and its people we have an
unique insight in these local cultures which enables us to listen and learn
from locals, providing a better understanding of the social and cultural
climates. This personal approach we take to our guests and our partners means
the involvements of many staff. Next to this we are also actively involved
in a number of small specific projects in
local communities around Asia.
Our Personal approach also means exploring in small groups in order to maintain personal contact with the local communities and to keep the personal approach with our explorers or adventurers. These small groups we host can take part in real life, rather than watching staged events, developing friendships rather than working relationships. As a result of these small groups-exploration tours and our special approach each tour is an unique one.
We would like to remind you that adventurous travel in some of the most remote areas of this developing region comes with risks, we are 100% committed to the safety of our guests, the local people and our staff. Once more our flexibility and eye to safety and comfort ensure full participation while never compromising on the main components of our adventures.
We will take our future explorer-guests “Out of the ordinary, out of the standard” or out of our usual comfortable situation means that we will be brought in all kinds of different situations than we are normally used too. Our aim is to be out of our "safety area", even if it is just for this journey! This means that we are trying to give our explorers different experiences concerning food, accommodation and way of traveling or exploring. We are trying to give our explorers a taste of local life and as real or as authenticity as much as possible. Our goal, we want to give you first time experiences as much as possible! It's the excitement you feel when you are doing something you normally wouldn't. It doesn't involve doing dangerous and unsafe activities; it just means stepping out of your usual comfortable situation. That way you maybe will experience a whole new aspect of yourself by realizing "Hey, I can do that".
In line of our Personal Approach concept we also have Suggestions for our guests to adhere to our Travel Philosophy and our Responsible Travel ideas. The support and input of our guests-explorers is of the utmost importance to the overall success of the idea of Responsible Travel in general and our Travel Philosophy in particular.
Ortelius World Map
Want to know more about us or meet us?
We both have traveled extensively over the last 20 years to different continents and more than 50 countries collectively, and we are still planning our new future explorations. We plan to continue to explore until we're too weak to get out of our bed. Our passion for exploring and experiencing the unknown led us to the desire to host other people to these strange worlds of other countries and cultures. We also possess a real passion and knowledge of customer service and we do believe people generally do not get the value they deserve.
Dissatisfaction with this standard level of service and the lack of alternatives from the mainstream tours led us to establish a higher level of value for our "Monsoon Adventure Travel Company".
We strive to bring each of our explorers
a truly hosted experience as they discover Asia through our
Monsoon Adventure tours!
You can read more information about our
travel company and the founders on our About Us page.
Monsoon Adventure
More than just adventure travel in Asia. Explore Asia!